Well this is it, the final week of the program and December is already well underway. If you’re still with us then congrats on making it this far. I know it’s been a rough journey that has made you just about want to pull all of your hair out at some point. Well take a deep breathe now…go ahead…take one we’ll wait. It’ll help you relax for a minute.
Okay, now that you’re getting more focused it’s time to evaluate where you are right now and where you need to be. Are you on schedule, behind or ahead of schedule? If you’re behind schedule right now then don’t hold your breath too soon because guess what? We’ve got good news for you. It’s only December 6! That means you have a full two weeks to make it up! If you’re ahead of schedule then you were no doubt the one who was always doing the Get Ahead sections during the program.
Being right on schedule is a good place to be too because you still have two full weeks to add anything to your plan that you’ve decided you’d like to put in it at the last minute.
So that’s your main task this week, to figure out where you are and what you need to meet your goal. Here are a few questions to ask yourself depending upon where you are in your plan. Just to the heading that describes your current situation.
Behind Schedule: How far behind schedule are you? Just a week? Maybe two? Or a whole bunch? Whatever that amount is you can divide in half to come up with what you’ll need to meet your goal before Christmas since you still have two full week left. If that number is too big then it’s time to ask yourself what can you cut out of your plan and still feel very good about? If that number is too overwhelming then ask yourself which would be easier to do, cut another expense out for a couple of week or try to increase the money you bring in by that much more? If you’re still going with one of your previous income ideas how can you boost it to make even more over these next 2 weeks? Can you provide more value, better or faster service so you can justify raising the price? If you’re selling something can you double your sales in these last two weeks? How? It’s time to think outside the box! This is your last opportunity.
Right on Schedule: Very nicely done! If you’re running right on schedule that means you have made a plan and stuck to it. Things to ask yourself are: Was the plan you made too easy? Could you have stretched yourself a bit more and done even better? Take a minute to evaluate that. What can you do over the next two weeks that will stretch your original plan so that you can add some more real value to it? So you have a choice, you can rest easy knowing that you made a goal and achieved it and ride out the last two weeks relaxing in that. Or you can hit the grindstone a bit more and see how far you can really take it. Just don’t forget to enjoy the season while you’re at it.
Ahead of Schedule: Since you’re such a go-getter you may well be bored by now knowing that you’ve already achieved your goal ahead of schedule. Was your plan too small? Could you have added more to it at the beginning but maybe were afraid too? Perhaps you just put your nose to the grind stone and just flat-out killed it. Whatever the case is there’s no doubt that you’ve got what it takes to create a financial goal and achieve it. So ask yourself what’s your next goal? Maybe it’s time to pay off those credit cards since you didn’t have to use them this year. You obviously don’t need them at this point. You can just as easily setup a savings goal and put some money away in case of an emergency. Isn’t that what people say the main use of credit cards is for them? Well you don’t need that excuse anymore. Besides, it’ll feel better when you’re putting that money in YOUR account and watching it grow rather than giving it away to someone else to help their account grow. So your task is to enjoy the rest of this Christmas season knowing you have the funds you need for it, and then figure out what your next financial goal will be.
Wherever you may have ended up right now you can still come back to this site in the future to get continued help for creating financial goals and achieving them. After all that’s what this site is really all about. We plan to offer tips and financial learning that challenges the status quo thinking about finances to help you bust out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary!
At this point we’d like to take a moment to ask you to share with us how this journey changed the way you think about money and saving. Was it hard? Easy? What struggles did you face and how did you overcome them? Tell us your story and we could feature it on our site for others to celebrate your learning and success. You can email your story to SavingChristmas@Live.com. You can even do a video testimony and we’ll link it to your submission on our website. We are looking forward to hearing the good and the bad of your story.